Founders Of The North

Basic Description

[point]Basic Description[/point]

“ In a land of countless perils and infinite opportunities you begin your journey. A world where the Church wars the Northern Pagans, where trade flourishes throughout the lands, a world where crafts and trades fill the days and wolves control the night.”

Founders Of The North Is a map where you seek to rise from a lowly wanderer to become a great lord of the north, where you end up and how you get there is entirely up to you, but never forget that you are not alone in the north. Founders gives players a chance to explore a highly interactive world that is full of lore as well as majestic and harsh, such is the North.

Extract from in-game tutorial
“Founders can be played many ways, as a free-for-all battle royal over control of the north, played with politics, alliances, loyalty and backstabbing, you can even play co-op and defend the north from a common enemy…”

Further details into features of Founders Of The North can be found below.

Features

Founders provides a world where there are “countless perils and infinite opportunities” bellow you will find merely a handful of the unique systems and key features that makes Founders so engaging and entertaining.

Complex Simplicity

Founders offers various systems that are generally easy to grasp but often very hard to master, this allows a novice to play through a game with effortless ease while still allowing more ambitious, experienced or intuitive players to gain a well deserved competitive advantage over others, this makes for some really intense game play when faced with a skilled opponent.

Advanced And Unique Systems

Founders of the North has numerous advanced and unique systems such as the Trade system which applies supply and demand to the pricing of numerous valuable trade goods and raw materials, or the Guilds system which allows players to create business like entities that can be joined by other players as well as NPC factions, these guilds can exist to better The North, to fill your wallet, or to provide you and your allies with strategic weapons to win wars in ways you never imagined.

Multiple Ways To Play

The key aspect of FotN has to be the countless ways to go about becoming the one true lord of The North, or bringing peace to The North, or perhaps just ways to co-op against calamities, but be warned those who seek peace better have the power to obtain it; the price of peace is paid in blood. As Founders has both RPG and Builder elements you can chose at any point to switch your focus to the life of your founder, or to the progress of your empire. To fully understand this freedom you will have to play a few times.

A Scenic And Memorable Land

Your entire story will unfold in the majestic and lore filled world that is The North. The North is a beautiful scenic land that varies greatly from place to place, with memorable natural landmarks and soaring man-made landmarks that you yourself may one day construct. The lore bits placed all around The North creates an interesting and surreal world for you to play out your time in The North.

A Cold War In The North

With the Guilds system or by hiring or being a bandit player (Explained in-game) you will be able to engage in espionage. Espionage is just one of the military tactics you can employ in FotN to gain the upper hand. Using various espionage tools available you will be able to destroy your foes trade routes, place bounties on their people, destroy their harvest, and much more all without even declaring war…

The Enemy Of My Enemy is…

While there are countless ways to better your founder life and skills, ways to better your faction, as wells as destroy or hinder your opponents and allies, there are also times where the peoples of The North should unite against a common evil, the prime example being “Calamities” that shock The North and bring about much disaster (Explained in-game), or simply a player who has gotten too powerful and greedy and needs to be stopped. Founders has several systems that encourage communal playing as a post to players sitting in their little corner of the world then randomly attacking others. To obtain equipment as well as other goods and tools for your faction you will find yourself needing to trade with other players, or to demand these good form them as tribute or tax, as it is impossible to obtain all the resources available in The North without incurring huge costs.
You will also find that you will need help when engaging in most of the RPG aspects of the game such as dungeon crawling, which can be dangerous alone.

Further Map Info

[point]Further Map Info[/point]

Below are several extracts from the in-game “Founderpedia” to give you some idea about what you may experience during your time in The North.

Founders Basics

Basics and Tips

- You can only sell items at the Town Market.
- You can revive your hero at the Farm House or the Town Tower.
- Mana will be reffered to as Inspiration.
- Heroes can only gain Inspiration from "Companionship", in other words from being around other characters.
- You can buy coins from the Merchant's Guild which can be sold for the same price. (Stops you from losing money)

List Of Basic Commands

Equipment sellers: Pings the locations of stores that sell items needed to earn different forms of income.
-hunting
-fishing
-farming
-gathering
-wood
-tower
-market (Pings the locations of the three towns markets)
Town locations: Pings the locations of recommended places to found your new towns.
-town
Other commands:
-cam (Resets camera)
-cl (Clear messages)

More commands In-game!

Early Incomes

Hunting

Get money from hunting around the land, and selling the hides at local town markets.
To begin hunting you will first need a Hunter Equipment, whick can be bought from one of the two guilds found in north-west. (To ping these type -hunting)
Hunting can be the fastest way to get money earlier in the game if used properly. The hunting system is simple: if you kill a wild animal (rabbit, wolf, deer etc.) while you wear the Hunting Gear, the killed animal will drop hides or furs which can be sold.
Hunting Bands are formed by players in the early game, which is simply a group of heroes hunting together. This way they will all gain inspiration from companionship and will be able to use Heroic Might ability.

Fishing

Get money from fishing from various fishing spots along the coasts and rivers, and selling the fish at the local town markets.
To begin fishing you need to travel to one of the Fisherman's Mills (to ping these type -fishing), and buy fishing equipment as well as a fishing manual wich will ping the locations of the most fishing spots.
Fishing is a very useful form of income; it is one of the few forms of income that isn't affected by the numbers of people doing it.
To fish you need to use the Fishing Equipment on one of the fishing spots found around the map.

Farming

Get money by buying seeds, planting them and then simply watch them grow.
To begin farming just buy seeds from the Farmer's Guild, plant them somewhere safe and return when they are fully grown to harvest them, and sell the item at the market.
Later you will be able to buy better seeds; to do this you will need to build a Seed House.
Notes: - Plants DO NOT grow in the snowy area.
- Animals will attack your plants.

Gathering

Get money by finding herbs and either selling them at face value or using them for medical or alchemical process.
To begin gathering you will need a Gathering Equipment from a Hunter's Guild (Ping these with -gathering), then you simply need to use the equipment anywhere around the nort, and wait while the user looks around to find herbs. After some time herbs will be found, or not, so you need to look again.
Note: - When the Gathering Equipment is used it will take some time to find herbs.
- Gathering Equpment can only be used by your hero or your wife.

Alchemy

Get money by making potions using herbs and others items found in the north. Alchemy may not be the best income resource at first, but it will be useful. To begin alchemy you will need a Cauldron which can be bought from a Hunter's Guild. You will then need to obtain herbs to extract their properties. (This can be obtained through Gathering)
Founders of the North has a unique alchemy system that uses the properties of certain items rather than the items themselves.
Basics: - All herbs have properties which can be extracted with the Cauldron.
- These properties will then be added to your "Pool".
- The properties in your Pool can be used along with Potion Vials to make various potions.
- Currently you can obtain vials from Caravans and Leonardo the Thinker.

Herding

Get money by raising sheeps and pigs, and later kill them for profit.
To begin herding you will need to build a Barn, and this cannot be done at the very start of the game. Once you build a Barn you can begin training pigs and sheeps which will gain MP or "get fatter". When these sheeps or pigs are killed the owner of the killed unit will gain gold equal to MP of the unit.
Note: - Other players and wolves can kill your animals and you'll lose your profit, so keep them in a safe place.
- DO NOT kill them when they are less than 200 MP because you paid 100g to train them, so it would be a lose of money.

Merchantry

The concept of trade is simple: each good is sold at different values on the three towns. This way you get gold on the diference of price; however the price of all goods will increase when the supply of that good will decrease in that town.
Market Repot: Buying this item will display the current prices of all goods in the town. This item can be found in each of the Town Markets. (to ping these type -market)

Banditry

Bandit play involves hiding from patrols and running from town guards. Chase town defenseless travellers and trade caravans to make a living. You will become a bandit when you die and have no means of reviving yourself. (this is when you have no Farm House or a Town Tower)
It is not possible to become a bandit before grace period ends.
Tips: - Use the Sneak skill to slip in and out of towns when you need to buy items, or find companionship at the Tavern.
- You will be able to sell items at your Hide-Out.
- Buying a torch will help you out at night. (be careful with the Hide ability)
- You can revive at the Hide-Out.
As you get money and infamy you will be able to build a Bandit Camp, where you can hire others to work under your command and begin a path to become the bandit lord of the north.

Other Random Extracts From The Founderpedia

Nightfall

The importance of day and night has been greatly stressed in this map, as many aspects of the game will change during the night:
- During the night all units will experience reduced movement speeds.
- There is a massive decrease of the line of sight during night.
- All wolves will begin hunting at night and will call for their pack if they attack you.
- There are some places that can be entered only at night.

Besiege

It's stupid to think that you will be able to crush a powerful enemy town with just one massive attack; this is an almost impossible task.
To destroy a town you will need to "Siege" it, this is where you stop the enemy from leaving their town by building your own defenses around it as your first attack happens and building Training Grounds near their base (They can be built fast) stopping them from going to a market and taking away their source of income making them unable to fight back.

Awakenings

Awakenings are when a boss is spawned on the map by a player who has an item called "Special : Dark Age Literature" which can be obtained from answering the Fun Quiz correctly.
Each of the spawned bosses will drop an Artifact, an item of great power.
To perform an awakening you must seek out "Talia The Collector" a wandering NPC who will be able to awaken bosses if you are holding the Dark Age Literature when you buy the awakening item.

Calamities

Calamities are terrible events called on using "Special : Dark Age Literature" which can be obtained from answering the Fun Quiz correctly.
Calamities may be difficult to deal with but those who are willing to deal with them will be rewarded with special items, some calamities have a boss that must be killed to end them, others are not so simple.
It is difficult to defeat these on your own; you might need the help of trusted allies if you intend to survive.
To start a "Calamity" Obtain two Dark Age Literatures and venture to the Overgrown Altar in the north (“-altar” to ping)

Unsealing

Unsealing is an ancient art of the north; it has the ability to release the true power of an object.
Unsealing can be used to release the true form of an artifact. An unsealed artifact does not drop when the wielder dies, as it is bound to their soul and spirit.
Unsealing Artifact Blades: To unseal artifact blades you will need the Spirit of the North artifact obtained from the Great Owl Spirit Famriel. Simply bringing the two items together will release their true power. Blood Vengeance is unsealed with Heart of Darkness.

There is a great deal more info in-game!

Screenshots

Terrain Screenshots

A Serene Lake Of The North

Tranquil Everwood Forest

A Blissful Silent North

A Night At A Northern Forest

Small Eastern Crossing

Location Screenshots

Knights Templar Castle

Pagan Altar In The Far East

A Town Of The North

River Town On A Northern Night

Everwood Depths

Change Logs

[point]Change Logs[/point]

Change Logs

Version 1.01
Map released

Version 1.03
- Added "Calamity" aspect to game that can be accessed through Talia the Collector like awakenings are.
- Added "Plague" calamity.
- Added "The Covenant" calamity.
- Expanded Bandit techtree.
- Added Pack mule unit for both Founder and Bandit techtrees.
- Reworked some units.
- Enabled the existing currency system which kicks in later on. (Read in-game help)
- Added "Admiration" to all units which works in a similar way to Attacking
Experience and Defending Experience.
- Added new items to be made at Bakery.
- Wool from sheep can now also be used to make armor at Tannery. (Like with hides)
- Bosses no longer get stunned by mass axemen.
- Fixed imbalances with units.
- Fixed the bug with trade system where trade item could move (or not be picked up)
if too many trades are conducted at the same time.
- Added Famriel The Owl Spirit Boss in the south of the map.
- Several Special items (e.g. Lucky shell, Stun Shrooms, Plague Cure etc…) at
various places and to trade caravans.
- Added Unsealing of Artifacts.
- Tweaks here and there to minimize lag. (Which has not been an issue)
- Fix various small bugs. (There were so damn many it seems)
- Added version number.
- Changed Minimap preview.

Version 1.04
- Added "Lycanthrope" calamity.
- Fixed minor elements. (e.g. Rotation on Wooden Walls and scaling on Stone Walls
Etc…)
- Added Hero Mounting system. (Temporary, after this version you will have to do a quest to obtain the mounting skill for your founder.)
- Fixed even more typos…
- Expanded Help Guide.
- Added the long awaited Alchemy system.
- Added Gathering to accompany Alchemy.
- Added a multitude of Herbs and Potions.
- Improved the interactions of Travelers and Patrols. (This will become more apparent with the additions of Guild Founding in the coming versions)
- Improved movement speed of all wives by 25%.
- Bandits are now allowed to use Hunting Equipment and Fishing Equipment.
- Added more new questions to the Fun Quizz.
- Made the Immortal Covenant Calamity More Challenging.
- Calamities are now started at new Overgrown Altar rather than by Talia. (Awakenings still done by Talia)
- Calamities will cost a total of two Dark Age Literatures instead of one.
- Bandits are now able to obtain Dark Age Literature from quizz.

Version 1.05
- Mounted Founder bugs all fixed up, e.g. mounted founder does not lose charges on item when mounted, can carry Trade Goods, does not allow you to access both Bandit and non-bandit tech trees, you can now converse while mounted, items are no longer lost while mounting etc…
- Added Basics of the town management system, not the entire system just some of the basic interaction with non-player controlled towns.
(Town Management can be controlled at Town Tower, But will need Town Centre to gain any profit)
- Added Trade Income for Town Centre, these include new Caravans for Bandits to raid, the location from which these caravans will spawn can be changed at the Town Tower.
- Added extra cut scenes to add to the atmosphere of the game.
- Only heroes can now use Gathering Equipment.

Version 1.06
- Swordsmen, Archers, Axemen, and Stone Walls now enabled after Town Tower not Castle.
- Halved the frequency of all non-player influenced trade caravans.
- Doubled the Bandit profit from all caravans.
- All leaks in script fixed, should combat the lag some people experience very well.
- Increased preloaded content to further minimize initial lag.
- Made some items that didn’t stack before stack.
- Grapevines and Apple Trees added as special items at caravans.
- New loading Screen image.
- And as always typos, etc...

Version 1.07
- Bugs fixed, i.e. disappearing archers etc…
- Fixed day/night times.
- Halved drop rate of apples and grapes from apple trees and grapevines respectively.
- Added new tier 4 buildings to engineer, e.g. brewery.
- Added Brewery to make use of apples, grapes and potatoes.
- Limited Weapons to one for heroes.
- Added Importing of Raw Materials Glass and Stone at Town Tower. (Requires Town Center)
(Stone will be used for construction of structures in next version)
- Fixed Bug enabling Bandit and Founder at the same time.
- New treasure chest system implemented for bosses and special event creeps.
- Getting Blade artifact from each of the existing bosses will now occur 50% of the time from their chest. (Whitefang and Tamriel will still drop at 100%)
- Addition of dungeons. (The dungeons will actually have for the first time in war 3 history opponents that can be much harder, if not impossible to beat unless you use your head. You won’t encounter such foes at first but deeper in the dungeons there will be enemies who will overwhelm you with strange abilities you must overcome rather than just high stats, this will make the RPG element of FOTN grow greatly)
- Released first dungeon: Amarti Mine.
- New Quest System allowing special character progression, items and unlocking more secrets of the north. (More for you RPG lovers)
- Bug with buildings getting infected by the werewolf calamity is fixed.

Version 1.08
- Weather effect (Rain/Wind etc…) no longer effect dungeons.
- Improved terrain in Amarti Mine Caverns.
- Increased cost of Town Tower to prolong earlier game period.
- Added “The Widows Request” quest line to NPC Merin south of the Southern Town.
- Relocated NPC Denti to the southern entrance of the Northern Town.
- Added easy to use and very useful Goods Transportation system which creates transports to move items from various buildings to the Town Centre.
- Added Location Obelisks to all Towns.
- Added Founder’s Ledger to Founders to allow them to see progress of current quest.
(You wouldn’t have noticed but only one repeatable quest can be active at a time)
- Fixed bugs and typos.
- Altered tooltips to have increased noob-friendly…ness.
- Added new Everwood Depths dungeon with more interesting creeps than ever before, as well as a special exploration/progression system within the dungeon.
- Fixed massive issue with importing when not red player.
- Fixed issue with pathing for some growing crops.
- Fixed odd ramps in terrain at various locations.
- Implemented balances for some of the imports, e.g. glass price will rise faster with demand and base price is higher too.
- Torch item can now set alight crops, trees etc more effectively.
- All structures built by engineer now require Town Center.
- Changed massages to address inspiration as "Inspiration" rather than mana.
- Added very helpful optional tutorial that explains the basics to new players.
- Altered multiple locations to make them more spacious and town-friendly.
- Several new items.
- Minor other changes.

Version 1.09
- Precautions taken to fix server splits experienced in previous versions.
- Tutorial Video now skip able by typing “-skip” before it begins.
- Fixed camera issue caused when you die in a dungeon.
- NPC Merin’s quest line now available to all players.
- Castle and other structures given more invent slots.
- New Gatherer’s Post building added to engineer.
- Gatherer’s Post will auto loot two set item i.e. they will automatically be picked up once they are created. These items can be set by placing them in invent slots 1 and 2 of the Gatherer’s Post.
- Expiration Timer added to Goods Transports.
- Fixed bugs with mounting Founder.
- Minor fixes e.g. changed hotkey of “Transport Goods” ability to G from T, removed hero glow from mounted elite archers.
- Added New Item split system which allows you to split an item carried by your main hero in any slot to any given number e.g. “-split 1 10” will break 10 from the item in slot 1.
- Added new naming system which allows you to rename yourself “-name [desired name]”.
- Building info added to Inn/Brewery and Gatherer’s Post.
- Trade goods can now be sold as an entire stack and do not need to be sold individually.
- Town Center can now handle Trade Goods.
- Further extension of help guide (F9).

Version 1.10
- Fixes various issues with the opening video.
- Fixed issues related to skipping the tutorial video and issues with the tutorial itself.
- Altered and shortened the opening video.
- Placed foundation for the Guild System.
- Craft/Cooking/etc… actions conducted by buildings will now automatically process 5 times if possible rather than once. E.g. If you were to Bake Bread and had 5 time the required amount of Flour, the process will be repeated 5 times, however if you only had enough to make 4 bread, it will only do this 4 time.
- The cooldown for all Craft/Cooking/etc Actions have been halved.
Note: Both the above changes do not apply to the Blacksmith, the Tannery, or the making of Potion Vials at the Alchemist Guild.
- All units are restricted to one Weapon and one Armor Equipment item now; with the exception of Pack horses.
- Reworked the classification system for all Equipment items.
- Guard Towers can now load units to keep them secure. (For now his does not provide bonuses to the tower)
- Bandit Towers build time greatly decreased.
- Town Tower, Bandit Camps, Bandit Fortress, and Houses can now load units.
- As always minor tweaks, e.g. Increased Eagle population to original amount.
- As always extended the Help Guide. (F9)
- Begun on massive new RPG item surge with 20 new equips for Founder and Bandit.
- Items will not change the appearance of the wearer as of yet, this will be added in next patch very soon.
- Fixed issue with mounting Founder.
- Fixed issues related to death within a Dungeon.
- Chest similar to the ones dropped by Awakening bosses will now be dropped by all common creatures within dungeons; they will have a chance to give you some valuable equipment relative to the power of the creature that dropped the chest.

Version 1.11
- Fixed issue with fog effects.
- Completely fixed all issues that caused rare cases of texture loss.
- Added Town control NPC fraction entities. (These have little meaning at this point)
- Neutral Towns now controlled by a Baron, a Viscount or an Earl.
- Neutral Towns now have an opinion of one and other.
- Detailed of NPC fractions that own towns can be viewed at Guild Houses.
- Fixed issue with free hunting equipment dropping.
- Game music no longer forced.
- New model for Founder and Bandit heroes.
- Items equipped now show on units. (i.e. attachments have been added)
Note: The above does not include weapons from the Blacksmith or armor from the Tannery
- Added Fallen Shepherd boss fight to Everwood Forest Depths.
This will be a hard fight; going into it head on will be close to impossible, those who already know how to survive in Everwood will probably know what needs to be done here.
- Finished Cavern Lord boss fight at Amarti Mine Caverns.
Another challenging fight with the dark lord of the caverns
(Now that items change appearance, chest drops from bosses with fine looking armor will be released soon)
- Further progress with Guilds system.
- Progress with Festival event.
- Typo and minor bug fixes.
- Ambient music added to Everwood Depths dungeon.

Version 1.12
- Removed left over items from 1.11
- Bandit Hideout now heals like healing wells.
- Neutral Towers now only effect wild animals (This mean bandits and calamities are now more powerful)
- Fixed typos and bugs e.g. misplaced tooltips etc…
- Added new Bandit Bot.
The Bandit Bot can be activated with an Easy AI at map creation.
The bandit AI will roam about the map and do as bandits do; this release is a means to test out how the AI actually performs. Note though that these bots are not meant to be extremely powerful, such bots will be added soon, these bandits simply act as a torn in your foot, they will however be a great danger earlier on.
Currently they are set to not attack you at your town unless provoked.
- Fixed issue with boss summon locations.
- Werewolves from the Lycanthrope calamity can now ground vampires allowing them to even the playing field.
- Bandit Raiders are now heavily armored and take much less damage from ranged attacks.
- Fixed issues with regional price bonus for all items associated with it.
- Gatherer’s Post now auto loots herding products too, i.e. wool and meat, making heading a great deal easier.
- "Members Only" system added. This makes some new actions (Obviously no serious ones) require the entering of a command (This command can be found on the members only page at the official FOTN site)
Note: This version has no such new members only content as of yet, and it does not have a means to validate your membership in game as there is no need to, this will however be added in the next version.

Version 1.14
- Fixed numerous typos.
- Fixed ramps all over the north.
- Map Expansion!!
- More town locations.
- More scenic locations.
- New dungeon locations prepared.
- New and unused Ancient Obelisks.
- Expansion of some of your old favorite town locations.
- A new lake among the new locations allowing an additional player to use lake fishing boats.
- Many locations were made in preparation for upcoming additions.
- More neutral towns.
- New dungeon cam, cam is now further away and on an angle.
- Bandit bots are more inclined to ignore northern part of the north.
- Werewolf defense type changed to increase difficulty of Lycanthrope calamity.
- Leader/Mother/Head/Great Werewolf health increased, retreat health cap increased, and is now immune to mass stun when health is low.
- Terrain of Amarti Mine Caverns expansion completed, it will not be accessible however in this version.
- Changed odds of animal spawns to maintain balance of hunting system.

Version 1.15
- Mac Compatibility! All issues related to Mac crashes have been fixed. (This has not been thoroughly tested, as that is the main reason for this release)
- Dungeon monster now only spawn upon entry, this will remove the lag they generated when not being used.
- Stronger creeps in dungeons will now drop a new Iron equips set. (Details on official site)
- Bandit AI issues from 1.14 have been fixed.
- Fixed oddities in new dungeon camera.
- More addition made in preparation for later additions.
- Several other technical issues were fixed.

Version 1.16
- Population cost of Villager, Worker, Engineer, and Pack Horse reduced to 0
- Fixed several minor issues (E.g. problems caused by night shift for calamity videos)
- Blacksmith can now produce Trade Good: General Arms with the use of iron
- Fixed issues with bandit players not respawning when they should
- Balanced bandit unit sight ranges
- Built the base of village/town NPC factions
- Village/Town NPC factions now build defenses when they can afford to
- Village/Town NPC factions now consider their safety and react to their surroundings
- Fixed leaks found in some farming systems
- Equipment item sets introduced:
When you have all the items of a set they will combine into a set item in your inventory providing you with extra invent slots!!
(E.g. Iron Set which consists of Adventures Armor, Iron Gauntlets, Iron Boots will combine into one item "Item Set: Iron Armor" with the effect of all the combined items and will have a "Socket slot")
- Created 4 Item sets in this version (More to come shortly)
- Socket Slots have been added to some items, these "Socketed" items can be combined with gems obtained through the Founder mining system which is soon to be completed, for now they won't serve much purpose.
- Placed male companions in preparation for Female Founder options
- Leonardo the Think now sells plans for "Leo's Workshop"
- Alchemist Guild can finally make Gunpowder
- Gunpowder is finally introduced:
Gunpowder can be used with Leo's Workshop to produce rifles and in turn train Riflemen and other gunpowder units; it can also be used to build Cannon Towers a new elite tower that has various forms of design each with its own advantages and disadvantages. - With Leo's Workshop you will be able to modify all your towers to suit different rolls all over your empire
- NPC info added to all wandering NPCs
- Hunting and Fishing have been balanced for a more interesting early game. Both hunting equipment and fishing equipment will yield twice as much when used by a Founder.
- Addition of new Awakening bosses:
Heroic Hawk Spirit Farsai: A legend of the north skies and the deity of storms!

Version 1.17 Guilds Of The North
- Fixed issues with Neutral factions’ aggression towards hostiles and hostiles towards neutrals.
- NPC Town towers now auto-repair during the day time.
- Minor Fixes (e.g. terrain and scaling etc…)
- Fixed issues with Bandit AI (Easy Computer) alliance that occurred in 1.16.
- Reduced base max amount of Travelers.
- Introduction of long awaited Guilds System:
This new guild system will give players progressive and tactical advantages as well as a steady and more than reasonable new income source if utilized properly.
- Traveler count is affected by number of guild representatives roaming The North.
- Guilds can now be founded through the Guild Options panel obtained from any of the Guild Houses located at each non major town in The North. Ping these with “-guild”.
- Founding a guild will cost 3000 gold, the guild will have the first seat (First place of the guild) taken by the founding player and the second and third will be occupied by two of the NPC factions of The North (i.e. a baron or viscount) leaving two empty seats for other players to join.
- Joining a guild cost 3000 gold, but you will enter with a contribution of 2000
- There can be a total of four guilds at any one time, the types, functions and prosperity of these guilds can vary as the players see fit.
- Members of a guild will have access to simple guild actions such as:
Funding (Investing in) a guild which will increase your control over the guild (Initially control is divided equally between the founding player and two NPC factions)
Withdraw money from the guild (Making drawings), doing so will lower your control over the guild but you will have direct access to funds amounting to how much you have invested with additional interested based on how much this investment has grown.
- Another key option guild members have is the ability to hire a guild rep, allowing them easy and reliable access to guild functions.
- Guild control will determine what % of the guild income is sent to you each distribution period (Every 240 seconds)
- Guilds will gain money primarily from sales to players
- Guild will also have extra base income generated based on demand for their individual service in The North, conflicting guilds may cause demand for others to increase while similar guilds may cause the opposite. (e.g. Bandit Organizations cause demand for security in The North to increase each passing day, this will increase the income of Mercenary and Order guilds.)
- As a guilds total funds increases they will be able to afford more guild reps to roam the North.
- Guild based variables have been placed to act as triggers for events in future versions.
- Guild Representative units who sell guild good and services have been added (The death of these units will cause a loss to their respective guilds)
- Introduction of new Bandit Organization (Focused on providing espionage functions as well as alternate military approaches)
- Introduction of new Mercenary Guild (Focused on enhancing your military effectiveness as well as tactical military aids)
- Several special guild only units have been added (E.g. the Spy unit, the only unit who has permanent invisibility, even while moving! (Available with a Bandit Organization) As well as Full Metal Militants, impressive new foot soldiers capable of fending off numerous opponents single handed.)
- Special guild items have been added (e.g. Deadly Weapon Poison capable of dealing massive damage over time to any opponent)
- Special guild services/functions added (e.g. Placing a bounties on units, sabotaging structures, placing mercenary ambushes etc…)
- Guild Houses will now be able display guild details (i.e. current guilds funds, last incomes, seat holders, seat holder control, etc…)
- New Bounty system applied through Bandit Organizations allows you to place a price on the head of any unit, this will also attract bandits and even assassins to come and claim this prize.
- New tactical military weapons such as Mercenary Ambushes can be used to completely destroy an army much larger than yours or simply harass or create general chaos.
- Added Guild system details to in game help guide (F9); further details will be added in later versions.

Version 1.17B X-mas Special
- Essentially 1.17 except with some X-mas spirit!
- Special celebratory items
- Altered map terrain and doodads
- Changed weather effects
- Fixed massive issue with travelers and other wanderers getting stuck in the river crossing town
- Random holiday spirit changes just for fun!

Version 1.18 A Dangerous Land I
- Awakened Countess Draculara made more powerful (Calamity Boss)
- Minor Fixes (e.g. Removed dismount ability from Mounted Mercenary, Fixed issues with loading time of day after calamity)
- As always more typo fixes (e.g. Typo in vampire calamity)
- Countess Draculara and Hawk Spirit Farsai no longer drop Spirit of the North
- Countess Draculara and Hawk Spirit Farsai now have the same chance of dropping Heart of Darkness as they did of dropping Spirit of the North
- Northern Calling can now be unsealed
- Unsealing Blood Vengeance and Northern Calling has become much easier
- New Calamity Dakenstein's Creation “Having lost his beloved wife to an incurable disease, the famous scholar and alchemist Lord Dakenstein turned to a darker side of alchemy and discovered a way to create life. What one would expect to be a blessing quickly revealed itself as a curse that would plague our beloved North. This creation of Dakenstein was shunned by the people of The North due to its gruesome features, and it in turn came to resent humanity. Harnessing the power deep within itself the abomination became able to create life, now it seeks only to cover the world with its own kind…” This addition allows you to fight against the most difficult calamity created to date! This one is NOT for the faint of heart.
- Calamity boss Dakenstein's Abomination now drops Soul of Creation, an artifact capable of bringing back the dead momentarily.
- Calamity boss Awakened Countess Draculara now drops Chalice of Life, an artifact capable of reviving fallen allies.
- Calamity boss Mother/Head/Original/Great Werewolf now drops Claw of Malice, an artifact that gives the wielder a fearsome cursed attack power.
- Fixed issues with bounties placed on heroes
- Creatures in Everwood Depths dungeon now have miscellaneous drops as well as chest drops.
- Fixed issues with entering Everwood during a small gap between night and day.
- Added entry announcements to Everwood

Version 1.19
- Entry area of Everwood forest expanded.
- Fixed issues with disappearance of dungeon exit markers.
- Northern Calling and unsealed equivalent can no longer be stacked as weapons.
- Miscellaneous drops will be cleared from dungeons at the end of each night.
- Added ping commands for Everwood Depths and Amarti Mine Caverns.
- Fixed issues that cause dungeon camera to sometimes lock if you become a bandit within a dungeon.
- Founder/Bandit hp regeneration greatly weakened
- Both bread items now heal more hp
- All alchemy potions are now produced in doubles rather than one (With the same cost obviously) with the exception of Plague cure.
- All potions mentioned above will now sell for half the price they would have before.
- Fixed issues with unlimited Guild rep spawning
- Tweaked some walker paths again for smoother walking
- Removed the bug that allowed abuse of Hunting Equipment
- Began work on Adventurers guild functions and laid out foundations.
- Added two new armor Set; Everwood Guardian’s Set and Cavern Lord’s Set.
- Dungeon bosses at long last drop chests that allow you to pick one of three set items
- The Fallen Shepherd of Everwood Depths now drops the Everwood Guardian’s Set.
- The Cavern Lord of Amarti Mine Caverns now drops the Cavern Lord’s Set.
- Several other small but detrimental issues have also been fixed.

Version 1.20
- Tannery can now process Hides to create trade goods; this will affect the supply and demand pricing of the Furs trade good.
- Precautions taken to avoid reoccurring map initialization triggers when loading the game
- Addition of new guild type: Workers Guild
This new guild will provide players access to new forms of auto income generation similar to fishing and pearling boats.
- New Grain Farm and Hunters Post buildings can be purchased from Workers Guild Representatives.
- Grain Farm allows you to automatically grow various crops to be harvested each morning.
- Hunters Post provides you with automated hunters that gather hides all day long.
- As always typos fixed as well (e.g. Bakery tool tip)
- When a Bandit player leaves they will be taken over by a bandit bot (The same bot as comp easy) when this occurs it will discern which of the 20 locations that have been deemed “bot locations” are available (Not occupied by players) and begin building a bandit camp there.
- When a player that has left is killed (Forced to become a bandit) they will also load the comp easy bandit bot.
- Information about the existence of bots finally mentioned in help guide
- Further expansion of the help guide

Version 1.21
- Herding animals (Sheep, pigs etc…) can no longer be given orders unless they are under the influence of a herder (Shepherdess)
- Horses are no longer trained at the Stables but are now raised at a Barn and then trained to their roles.
- Stables now requires Barn
- Now able to more quickly train mounted armies if prepared
- Numerous fixes including fixes to stop wanderers from gathering in towns/villages
- Pack Horses are no longer under one equip of each type restrictions
- Several minor bug fixes
- Crops are now produced for every 3 fields rather than from each one for Grain Farms
- Grain Farm model changed and pathing map resized
- Fixed bug that caused Bandit leavers to spawn Bandit AI in locations that are taken rather than locations that are vacant
- Hunter’s no longer have an inventory, only one slot that is occupied by their equipment
- Hunter’s can longer drop their hunting equipment and do not drop it when they are killed.
- Hunter’s Post Hunters now get trained with Hunting Equipment
- Lots of new Fun Fact Quiz questions
- Guild Representatives also produce gold now when killed by Bandit Players
- New Ally/Unally and Vision/Unvision systems make it easier to combat surprise attacks
- War and peace declarations are announced to all players
- When a player is unallied they automatically unally back.
- Players can no longer trade resources across the old ally menu, trades, tributes and gifts will now need to be provided in the form of coins either from a Town Center or Merchants Guild (ping with “-wood”)
- Fixed bug that caused empty dialog box when using the Founder’s Journal
- As always expansion of the help guide and typos fixed
- Calamities now require consent of all aware players; they can be disabled and enabled with commands

Version 1.22
- Unally commands no longer work until end of Grace Period
- As always fixed all typos recently mentioned on official site
- Fixed bug that prevented Northern Calling from unsealing
- Extension of in game help guide
- Changed appearance of Northern Calling
- Addition of the Adventurer’s Guild’s Request Board system allowing players to meet specific item request quests provided by NPCs of the North.
- The Request Board feature will create competitive balancing for various forms of income as well as act as a method to further improve your game play.
- Addition of the Adventurer’s Guild’s Basic Quest system allowing players to accept various kinds of quests raging from simple quests to find lost items, investigating cult activities, raiding bandit camps, saving helpless nobles, finding lost persons, solving ancient riddles or various other deeds.
- The new Adventurer’s Guild systems will not only provide a new way of life for your founder but it will create an element of cooperative, or more interestingly competitive questing, where players can race to finish the same quests for special rewards.
- Hordes of new opponents of varied caliber have been added for questing purposes providing an alternative to dungeon crawling for peacetime leveling.
- Numerous new items to accompany the new RPG side expansion of Founders
- Tutorial video was extended to mention the Adventurer’s Guild and Dungeons
- Introduction of Quest Tokens which can be obtained by completing Basic Quests and can be used to buy special items from special merchants in later versions.
- Other minor changes that were not logged

Version 1.23
- Numerous fixes to minor issues from 1.22 Basic Quest systems
- Having a Town Tower now allows you to proceed with quests as if you still possessed a Farm House
- Fixed all typos mentioned on FOTN site
- Axemen and other Heavy attack type units have been given a second attack when they are attacking structures to prevent their abuse as siege units
- Fixed issue with “Gathering Gatherers” quest that prevented NPC from giving you an item.
- Fixed issues related to Conversing that occurred in 1.22
- New offhand items such as shields and offhand weapons
- Numerous new Founder/Bandit only weapons
- Several new special items
- Added new equipment merchants to each of the main town during the day
- New “Equipment merchants” will restock each morning with a few random items from an extensive list of new Founder/Bandit only items such as special weapons and accessories to allow you to get an early edge over the competition, as well as new offhand equips such as shields of varied quality.
- Spies from the Bandit’s Guild now take 2 food as stated

Version 1.24
- Indestructible Town Towers no longer cause spawn in the Dakenstien calamity
- Fixed typos in Basic Quest massages
- Increased the income of “Earl” class NPC factions
- Addition of NPC town relations system which now allows players to engage in several diplomatic actions with the small villages around the North.
- Players can give gift to NPC factions to increase their relationship (Explained further in game)
- Player can for alliances with NPC factions once a good relationship is established. NPC factions consider several factors when deciding if they will enter an alliance, this is explained in game.
- Allies of an NPC faction can request “aid”. NPC factions will then provide military or monetary aid based on their ability to do which is determined by the wealth of the NPC faction itself (Accounting for numerous factors)
- Allies of an NPC faction can fund the construction of defenses at NPC villages/towns, improving security and relations
- Enhancements to existing the NPC faction “security” system and system that calculates total security factor in the North
- Players can demand tribute from NPC factions; while this yields profit it will decrease the faction’s opinion of the player
- Killing villages will have a slightly smaller effect on NPC relations than before
- NPC Alliance system will cause a war when one player demands tribute from an NPC faction under the protection of another player.
- Extended help guide further to include information on NPC town relations
- Expansion of Festival area in preparation for the soon to be added Grand Festival event
- Fixed typos mentioned on official site
- Fixed issues with command to find active spies

Since it appears Domasi is not around I had asked the good people at Hive to grant shared control of the Founders map page so that I would be able to finally upload 1.16. However despite their efforts this was not possible, and so I had to upload 1.16 as a new map. Sadly this means that I had to lose the massive download count that had stacked up so far under the FotN name.

Having had to make the description myself this time I have new found respect for Domasi >.<

Anyways, enjoy guys, the first installment of Founders in a long while ^^

Yes, all download counts and posts with feedback were lost... oh well, at leaast we've got a such a new and majorly immproved version.

Female founders, you say? Intresting... is this gonna give something else except for other companions to chose from? Like maybe decreased damage but increased movement speed (Same DPS), other kind of abilities maybe? Like instead of that mighty or heroic or whatever blow you can give some other ability. Like the one which would paralize the unit. Of course, i don't say women are weaker, but it's kinda hard to imagine one killing a wolf from one blow. But stuning a unit... that's really useful too, right?